As Irish dancers, we often neglect strengthening our upper body and arm muscles because it feels like we don’t use them. This is actually not true – in order to hold a perfectly still posture, we must have strong muscles all over to help everything stay in place while our legs are moving quickly.
Perfect posture involves engaging multiple parts of your upper body – your shoulders, arms, back, and core all work together to show off your beautiful composure. But what many overlook is that you can start to see noticeable improvements in your posture simply by integrating some key stretches into your training.
The Irish Dance Globe hears from expert Megan Kerrigan of Move with Meg to find out her favourite exercises to strengthen your body for improved posture.
Exercises and Strengthening
We know that we need to have strong muscles to support a perfect posture, but how do we get there?
“Posture for Irish dance is much more than the stereotypical picture of just keeping your arms by your side. It is about upper back strength, core strength and stability, back mobility and flexibility, hip mobility, shoulder mobility, tricep strength, glute strength, the list goes on,” Megan explains.
“Dancers come to work with MWM with the intention of improving their posture and are often shocked to find that their posture improves naturally as we simply begin getting all of their joints and muscles moving better,” she adds.
“Each dancer is different, and what works for you might not work for your friend, but there are a few main exercises that we would begin with to improve posture.”
1. Lower Back Stretch
- Lie on your back, bend one knee up to a 90 degree angle, and bring it across the body toward the floor on the opposite side
- Pin the knee down with your hand to restrict it from moving off the floor. This is super important
- Reach your top arm across in front of the body, up and open out to the other side, let your head follow the hand and twist with it as it moves
Repeat eight to 12 times each side, twice a day.
2. Wall Quad Stretch
- Use a wall to put your back knee bent up against it. The closer the knee is to the wall, the harder and deeper the stretch
- The front leg jumps up onto the foot and wiggle it forwards so you have a 90 degree angle at the knee and the heel is firmly on the floor
- With your hands on the floor to the inside of the front leg, push your hip forwards and down towards the floor, attempting to make a long line from your shoulders down to your knee. Think about squeezing the shoulders back and lifting the chin into dance posture here
- Push up to the second position, your bum pushing back towards the leg up the wall, and squeeze the glute/bum cheek of the leg that’s bent to feel the stretch
- Try not to arch back but tilt hips forward and under
Hold for 10 seconds each position and repeat three times.
3. Wall Slides
- Sitting against a wall with your legs straight out in front of you, put your arms up into the first position (pea on a fork, your head being the pea). Your arms never come lower than in line with your shoulders
- Keep the middle of the back touching the wall at all times and try to keep the elbows, wrists and head touching too with your chin up
- Slide the hands up slowly to touch above the head (pea on a spoon) and slowly back down to the first position
Repeat eight times, and increase the number as you get stronger. Slower is better and harder with this.
4. Downward Dog
- Start in a kneeling position with your hands under your shoulders and knees under hips
- Keeping the feet where they are, push your bum up towards the sky
- Think about driving your heels down toward the floor and your head through the gap of your arms
- Keep your knees as straight as possible, think about spreading your weight evenly across your feet (not falling to the inside or outside)
Repeat eight times, push up into the same position as above.
These exercises are all customizable to fit every dancer’s needs. Try these out on your own and see how the results occur naturally.
Follow Move With Meg for more tips and advice on Instagram.
This article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice and dancers should seek the guidance of a professional regarding any health and fitness questions. Read our disclaimer for more information.
